Scammers often quickly change
their methods when old methods don’t work as well and to take advantage of new
vulnerabilities. The IRS has announced that scammers who have been posing as
IRS agents on the phone are moving to email with fake, although very convincing
“bills,” from the IRS.
The email claims that the person
receiving the email owes more in taxes because of the Affordable Car Act
provisions. The letter asks you to send a check to the IRS at a post office box
in Texas.
There are several things wrong
about this email:
1. The
IRS will not email bills to you. Any correspondence will be by US mail. And
according to IRS special agent Ryan Thompson, “You’re not going to have the
exact bill. It’s not going to say, hey, pay this thing right now. It gives you
a process to follow up with the IRS.”
2. When
you pay your federal income tax or late penalties or fees, you pay the US
Treasury, not the IRS.
3. The
IRS does not have you send mail to a post office box, they have you send mail
directly to an IRS address.
So far scammers have made $47
million from this scam nationwide. One million of that in the State of
Washington.
Be careful of any email. If you
receive an email that looks like an IRS scam, the IRS asks that you forward it
to phishing@irs.gov, then delete the
email from your inbox.
The following link shows a sample
of the email and has an interview with special agent Thompson:
KIRO TV:
Most scammers are based outside
of the US borders, so it is difficult for our law enforcement agencies to
apprehend and prosecute them. This story, however, talks about the arrest of 70
IRS scammers in India who were targeting Americans:
Associated Press:
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